( OPEN ) PAST AND FUTURE FLOOR 🌠

[fixtures]

WHO: Everyone!
WHERE: Floor [REDACTED], the Timey Wimey floor
WHEN: Early April
WHAT: Floor that takes you to the past and future... literally!!
WARNINGS: None, will update if necessary!

TIMEY WIMEY FLOOR

While there have been floors that have caused changes to characters… there’s never been one quite like this. Upon visiting Floor [REDACTED], characters will find themselves amongst hundreds and hundreds of doors. But that’s not all — look hard enough, and you might find a door that looks extra familiar to you!

It could be the door to your house, the door to your room, the door to your favorite coffee shop, the gate to a garden you used to love. But what matters is that once you walk through it, you’ll be transported somewhere else entirely…

INTO THE PAST

Walking through a door with a partner will take you to an exact copy of a place from your home. It’s not the real thing, but it’s damn close. Won’t it be nice to have a look around and reminisce?

The one thing that's different about these spaces is that they're interlinked with other spaces; where one character's copied space ends, the other half of the pair's begins, allowing characters to visit both theirs and a companion's homes in one fell swoop.

There will be no other living creatures in each “copy,” other than those that walk through with you. The space can be as large or as small as you like — and it can even be outdoors! It’s a nonsensical pocket dimension, don’t worry about it.

Characters will also find that walking through these doors may cause them to appear younger than they really are, as if they traveled back through time. It’s up to each player how this manifests — how young characters become, if they retain their memories and/or personality or revert to how they were at that age, etc — and of course, some characters may not be affected at all.

Finally, you'll notice that the door locks behind you as you enter. Engraved on the door, there's a riddle to how you can leave:

a piece of the past, you'll bring to me,
you'll find that only that can be the key

Bring the door an item from each of your pasts, and the door will unlock once more. Sadly, no souvenirs, so the items will disappear once you walk through!

INTO THE FUTURE

But that’s not all! Because each door doesn’t consistently send you to a place from your past nor transform you to your younger self. Some of them do the exact opposite.

Stepping through may cause you to appear older than you really are, which, similarly, is up to each player.

But, where do these doors lead to, if not a place from the past?

The future — specifically, what the future will look like for you if your deepest wish is granted. Characters need not have a specific wish in mind for this to manifest — it could appear as if one of their more impulsive, fleeting, nonsensical wishes were granted, too (ex: wishing the whole world was made of ice cream). On the other hand, characters who have a wish in their heart to see someone again, or to accomplish a specific goal… will see just what the future could look like.

These spaces are more dreamlike, and less structured than the replicas. Think of it as being like watercolor — shifting and impermanent. Again, both characters' wishes will be blended into one space, which players are free to interpret as they like.

Another riddle will be on the door, for your escape:

speak each other's wishes aloud to me,
and only then will you be set free

Characters will need to investigate the dreamlike space and figure out what their partner's wish is in order to be freed! You'll each have to literally say each other's wish out loud to get out. Have fun!

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Comments

[unliminal]

[ So they arrive in the Elderflower, and so the future that manifests before them must be Sumina's. There's an uncomfortable tightness that rests against his chest, squeezing his heart, at the mere intimation that Sumina would leave the Hotel to return to the inn, but of course, he's known that would have to happen someday since the moment he returned. He just didn't expect acknowledging that fact to hit him so squarely in the head so soon...

Yet the place they step into seems to take even Sumina by surprise, and Satoru turns a bewildered glance down at her, only to see her new digs. It's so unlike anything he's ever seen her wear before, and it almost make her look like...you know, a sorcerer. Not the kind he is, but the more classical kind. But...

That doesn't make any sense either, does it? She left that path behind a long time ago.

It's only then that he gives the stretching, warped space around them another look, gaze lingering on the stained-glass windows of those who look remarkably like his Sumina. ]

Mina...are you putting any of this together? Or is this future magic all out of whack?

[ Or...is this truly a future where she finds her potential as a sorcerer? ]

[airdnd]

[ It's not until Satoru turns that bewildered glance down at her that it even occurs to her at all, that she's clad in such clothing, though soon enough her free hand curls into the cloak that sits draped over her shoulders as she turns her own gaze back up towards the stained glass windows that tower over them both. ]

I'm... I'm just as confounded by this as you are... P-Perhaps it's meant to convey that my future is... nebulous...?

[ No pun intended, even though there's definitely some kind of nebula visible in the gaps where this chamber seems to be loose at the seams.

Sumina glances over her shoulder, at the door they'd stepped through. ]

Ah! There's something written on the door, Satoru.

[unliminal]

[ Pun may not be intended, but Satoru can't help but pick up on it immediately, his lips twitching with fond amusement. Nebulous indeed, isn't it?

Rather than comment on it, however, Sumina directs his attention elsewhere; as he turns to crane his head back at the door they stepped through along with her, her hand still tight in his own. ]

Eh? What is it?

[ At least it's not seeing his own name on a gravestone or something... ]

[airdnd]

[ Stop joking about graves!! THERE ARE NO GRAVES!!!! Only beautiful stained glass renditions of her family members! ]

It says... "Speak each other's wishes aloud to me, and only then will you be set free."

[ . . . ]

Then maybe this chamber isn't only showing us the future, but... what we wish for it to be...?

[ Which explains exactly none of why they're in this Kingdom Hearts-ass version of the Elderflower, nor why she looks like a sexy sorceress. Still, her gaze meets his, eyelids fluttering as she blinks, a quizzical look on her face. ]

I'm still confused, haha.

[unliminal]

[ What they wish for it to be, huh...? That's a bigger ask than maybe it should be, but Satoru understands his position all too well — he's lucky to be alive. Or...whatever this is. It'd be tempting fate to wish for anything more than that, wouldn't it?

But he's always been greedy, and whether it's tempting fate or otherwise, that hasn't stopped him from wondering. From putting ideas in his own head, exquisite and dangerous in turn. ]

Isn't it kind of taboo to say what you wish for? [ His mouth slants to one side, while he runs his fingers through his hair absently. ] Maybe it means what we'd use our wishes from the hotel for.

[ That's kind of the same thing, though. He glances around at the shimmering facsimile of the Elderflower around them. ]

Sooo...d'you think this is your wish or mine?

[ He doesn't realize what he's admitted to in those words. ]

[airdnd]

[ She looks around, too, and it's easy enough to surmise that her wish likely has something to do with the inn, and maybe... that deep desire of hers, still, to measure up to the legacy laid before her by her ancestors. In fact, she's almost sure of it—

—until Satoru says that, catching her entirely off-guard. It's only too apparent in the way she quickly turns her head to look at him again, her eyes wide. She hadn't even considered that this could be anything but a manifestation of her hope and dreams, but when he says what he says...

Does he realize what that sounds like... ? ]

Wh... What? How could it—

[ she shakes her head, and starts over. ]

Satoru... Do you think your wish has something to do with the Elderflower...?

[unliminal]

[ It dawns on him as it does for her. That is how it sounded, isn't it? And yet...it doesn't feel wrong. Even if he didn't think it through, hadn't dared to dream too much of a future where they could spend time together at the Elderflower, in case it never came to pass, but even in the back of his mind, it had been impossible not to entertain the idea. To not give in to the tacit belief that somehow, some way, they would wind up there together someday.

It wasn't a matter of if, but of when. ]

I think... [ He stops, wets his lips, and then continues, a touch quieter than before. ] My wish has something to do with you.

[ Maybe that's vague, but ultimately...that's the one thing he can be sure of. That whatever the future holds, he...wants her to be a part of it. That's really not so stunning of a revelation, is it? Not when he considers just how irrevocably she is a part of his soul now. ]

[airdnd]

[ There are... so many things that either of their wishes could entail. When first she'd arrived to the hotel, she'd been so sure that her wish would be used for the Elderflower and the Elderflower only. A wish to make it more stable, or for guests to be able to find it more easily, perhaps even magic that would heal their guests as they walked through the doors, something, anything that her elven family could have accomplished over centuries of work - centuries that she herself doesn't have. Even as she began the arduous work of disentangling her identity from her family's legacy, their business, she'd remained sure of that fact. And maybe that wish yet remains - again, nebulously - as attested by the appearance of her family in this very chamber, but...

There is more to it, now, isn't there? Her wish... isn't a simple hope to improve the Elderflower in some fashion, anymore.

Sumina looses her grasp from his, but only for the sake of framing his face between her hands. ]

I think... mine has something to do with you, too.

[ Here, under the light cast over them by the stars and the colorful glass that surrounds them, she'd like to say it. Like this, it almost feels like her family is watching over her, as she realizes at last what they've wanted all along - for Sumina to choose something for herself. ]

Satoru... I want there to be a future for us outside of this hotel. When I leave this place and return to my home, I... I want you to be able to stay by my side.

[ A beat. ]

If that's what you would wish for, too.

[unliminal]

[ She isn't the only one coming to realize — his wish has changed, too. Of course, things have been so nebulous since his return that he hasn't put much stock into what his wish would be now, almost as though doing so would be tempting fate. After all...can he wish for anything other than to have a life outside this hotel? Is that even something he can wish for? And even if he can...what would he choose to do with that life?

Shouldn't he return back home, to give his all once more? Yet just as he told Sumina before, he doesn't have regrets about how his fight with Sukuna went. In the end, he wasn't strong enough, and so returning...wouldn't change anything. Not like that. Wouldn't it be better to...make a wish for himself, for once? One that's not for the greater good of jujutsu sorcery, but...

Just for himself. For Satoru.

As her hands frame his face, the curtain of his snow-white lashes falls shut, allowing himself to indulge in that potential future, what it might be like to...stay with her. At the Elderflower, or anywhere else they might be able to go. Her Inn is a doorway to so many other worlds, after all...if he can go there, then he can go anywhere.

All that really matters...is that it's with her. ]

Hah...what do you know? That's my wish, too. As long as I'm with you...I'll go anywhere you go.

[ As he says so, in the otherworldly space around them, cherry blossom trees start to sprout and bloom in rapid succession, their petals adrift on the air, heralding spring. Rebirth, new life. ]

[airdnd]

[ Truth to tell, she feels... selfish, to have voiced the wish that dwells deeply in her heart. Because perhaps Satoru should return given a chance that can only be granted by something as powerful as a wish - perhaps he could return to Yuji reborn in a sense, and finish what he'd started...

And so it's with relief spelled plainly on her features that she hears him speak of his wish, too, and hears that... it is one and the same as her own. But it's more than that, too, isn't it? His wish... it's her.

And oh, how full her heart feels to realize this, to have her vision then filled with the sight of beautiful pink blooms, delicate petals floating about in the air around them. With the stars surrounding them, and her home, and now this new life... it is an unforgettable moment, just one of many that she has had with him. ]

Satoru... These flowers...

[ They're his doing, aren't they? A manifestation of the wish he'd only just spoken into the space around them. She knows not what they mean, but she does know... that they fill her with such hope. ]

[unliminal]

[ They are his doing, and though it hadn't been a conscious effort to create them, it feels so natural, now, to see them surrounded by cherry blossom trees within this facsimile of the Elderflower. Of course this is his wish. It's the only wish he can make, isn't it? The only wish he wants to make. There's so much about his future that is uncertain now, muddled by the events back home, and who he chooses to be now, and while he still doesn't have those answers...

He knows he wants to be by her side. That's the simple truth, seeded deep within his blossoming heart, where it's finally spring again at last. ]

Back home...the sakura blossoms are symbols of rebirth. A little on the nose, honestly... [ A somewhat breathless chuckle. ] Of new life, and love, too...

You're my new life, now. No pressure.

[ And so long as he remembers that, everything else will fall into place. ]

[airdnd]

[ Pressure or no, there's something utterly whimsical about all that has been unfolding around them, to watch these beautiful, delicate petals flutter about in a space meant to symbolize Sumina's home, Sumina's life, Sumina's heart - all of which she wishes to share with the man before her. The man she loves and wants to be with...

The laugh that bubbles up out of her throat is warm and affectionate in equal measure, carrying with it such a freeing feeling of choosing something for herself, choosing something together, unfettered by expectations placed upon them by others, or by the nature of their lives. Rebirth. New life. New love. Gods, she feels as if she could fly as free as these blossoms in the inexplicable breeze.

When Satoru returned, she'd told him that he'd received an unimaginable chance to be reborn. At the time, it had been too soon to give full credence to that very notion; his wounds were too fresh, too open to truly feel the magnitude of this truth. But here he is, now, accepting it, accepting himself, and what he wants out of his new life.

And he wants her to be part of it. What else is she to do in light of such a declaration, than express the depth of her own feelings with a lingering kiss? It is no less meaningful and sincere for how brief and chaste it is, before she murmurs with her lips yet brushing against his: ]

This life is both of ours, Satoru. To do what we will with it, together.